Asian MMA powerhouse ONE Championship is bringing esports into the ring, announcing the launch of ONE eSports, designed to serve as Asia’s largest global eSports Championship Series. ONE Championship and Dentsu Inc., Japan’s largest global advertising agency, will partner for the launch as a joint venture in 2019 with Razer, Singtel, and other top industry players also taking part in the partnership. ONE Championship intends to lead a plan to invest up to $50 million alongside other key partners into ONE eSports to create Asia’s largest global eSports Championship Series, offering competitive play in multiple blockbuster game titles across Asia and hold a number of eSports events held alongside ONE Championship martial arts events in 2019.

In addition, ONE eSports will also produce and broadcast dedicated eSports content in the form of live event broadcasts, documentaries, reality shows, weekly magazine shows, highlights, video blogs, and other unique content across its global media broadcast platform in 138 countries. Recently-signed ONE Championship athlete Demetrious “Mighty Mouse” Johnson will help to lead the ONE eSports efforts as its Chief Brand Ambassador.

COMPETITION and VENUES

ELEAGUE’s next move will be a familiar one, as the esports brand announced a renewed partnership with Psyonix for The ELEAGUE Cup: Rocket League 2018, marking ELEAGUE’s second cross-platform activation in the past two years for the title. The event will pit eight of the world’s best professional teams in a tournament from Nov. 30-Dec. 2 starting at 2p, with live coverage across Twitch and ELEAGUE.com, while top plays and stories will run in a series of episodes on TBS on Dec. 7, 14, 21 & 28, at 11p. Two four-team groups will each play a double-elimination bracket, with the top two teams from each group moving on to a single-elimination playoff. Teams will compete live from ELEAGUE Arena at Turner Studios in Atlanta for $150,000 in prize money.

PUBG Corporation mapped out the inaugural season of its global pro competition for PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds with nine regions now locked in to compete to reach the Global Championship at the end of the season and become the world’s greatest PUBG squad. Beginning in January, the inaugural season will feature three Phases, with every regional competition beginning and ending within the same windows of time. After Phases 1 and 2, the top teams from each region will compete head-to-head in third-party-hosted global events, followed by a global All-Star Games. At the end of Phase 3, the top-performing teams throughout the season will gather for a Global Championship where the survivors will have a shot at a $2 million prize pool. Regions will include North America, Korea, China, Europe/Middle East/Africa, Japan, Chinese Taipei/Hong Kong/Macau, Southeast Asia, Latin America, and Oceania.

With the new season of the Dota Pro Circuit underway, the series announced that Chongqing Major, which will serve as the second Major for their year’s slate. The event serves as a joint effort from StarLadder and ImbaTV and will pit 16 teams for $1 million along with 15,000 DPC Points. Fifteen of those 16 teams will be decided by open and regional qualifiers that will take place from Nov. 25 to 30 across North America, South America, Europe, CIS, China, and Southeast Asia. The 16th spot will be awarded to the winner of Bucharest Minor on Jan. 13. Meanwhile, DreamLeague announced plans to host the third Dota 2 Major of the Pro Circuit season in Stockholm in March.

Riot Games booked host regions for the next three years of the League of Legends World Championship. The company confirmed that the annual event will take place in Europe in 2019, before moving back to Asia in 2020 with China as host before coming back to North America in 2021. The European stop will take place in Paris in 2019, marking a return to the continent after four years and taking place at the AccorHotels Arena.

WorldGaming Network announced that this year’s WESG USA Qualifiers will take place Nov. 9-11 at Ultimate Media Ventures in Huntington Beach. The three-day tournament will feature the country’s top professional gamers competing for the opportunity to represent the U.S. at the WESG Grand Finals in China in March, where they will go on to compete for their piece of the $2.5 million prize pool.

The Global Association of International Sports Federations announced that Los Angeles won the bid to host the inaugural World Urban Games in September 2019, and stage the next edition of the Games in 2021. The Games will “showcase the skill, style and power of athletes from around the globe in a variety of new-generation sports competitions” and include a World Urban Games festival and esports program. Dr. Patrick Soon-Shiong, chairman and CEO of NantWorks, will chair the World Urban Games L.A. Organizing Committee, which is responsible for staging the event. Jenny Mann and Rick Fox will serve as co-managing directors of the organizing committee.

INSIGHTS

With Election Day this week, Stream Hatchet is investigating the appearance of politically themed keywords in Twitch Chat. Our insights examine whether game streaming viewers are a politically active group.

Twitch Viewers are politically inclined: Over 26K politically themed messages were sent this Election Day.

Gamers focused on topics related to the GOP: Messages containing the keywords “Republican” or “Republicans” generated 1.2K more mentions than messages containing “Democrat” or “Democrats”.

Live streaming generates more political engagement than game streaming: All of the top 5 politically active channels were streaming either “Just Chatting” or a “Talk Show” at some point during their election day broadcasts.

For more insights, analysis, infographics and everything related to game streaming, visit us at: blog.streamhatchet.com.

ACTIVATION

The NFL’s newest target is Epic Games’ Fortnite, with the league announcing that – beginning Nov. 9 – official NFL team “outfits” will be available in the Battle Royale Item Shop allowing fans to purchase and customize up to eight outfits representing their favorite NFL teams. In addition to NFL team outfits, football-themed emotes, harvesting tools, gliders, and even a referee outfit will be offered. Once a player owns an NFL team outfit they will be able to choose a uniform from any of the League’s 32 teams and customize the jersey with a number of their choice (1-99). The NFL team outfits will be available as both male and female figures and can be customized with a different team/number each time a player uses the outfit in Fortnite.

Voodoo Ranger, maker of a hop-forward family of beers from New Belgium Brewing, is ordering another round with DreamHack. Following the event partnership between DreamHack and Voodoo Ranger IPA during DreamHack Austin, the two parties will once again team up at DreamHack Atlanta, as a Main Sponsor of the DreamHack Open.DreamHack’s second 2018 event in the US runs Nov. 16-18 at Georgia World Congress Center.

G2 Esports and paysafecard are teaming up to invite Fortnite influencers from around the world to enter the newest talent show aimed at finding the next four top content creators in Fortnite, titled Making the Squad. The show, further backed by Logitech G and Esport-Management, will have Fortnite enthusiasts and influencers compete in a series of interactive online challenges, for a chance to secure one of four full-time streaming contracts with the club and access to a global audience in the #G2ARMY. Submission period runs from Nov. 8-15.

TEAMS

Global esports organization Gen.G opened the doors to its new esports facility in Seoul, designed to serve as the staging ground for its teams and management personnel. The seven-story building sees each team receive a dedicated training room featuring the highest spec gaming equipment, which is where players and coaches will train together, analyze performances, and develop strategy. Each room is named after classic gaming characters chosen by the players and coaching staff, such as Super Mario, Bubble Bubble, and Pac Man. Two additional boot camp rooms will be utilized by visiting teams to train with the Gen.G teams while in Korea, having already been visited by rival teams like Team Liquid and Dignitas.

Riot Games reportedly will welcome SK Gaming, North, Rogue, and Movistar Riders as European LCS permanent partners for the 10-team league, according to ESPN. The accepted teams are still pending after some “setbacks in negotiations around team participation agreements,” according to the report, but would join Fnatic, G2 Esports, Misfits, Schalke 04, and Team Vitality as well as a new team owned by Astralis in the organization. Riot announced it would be moving to a franchising system in Europe in March, making it similar to the NA LCS, which unveiled its permanent partners in December 2017.

Esports lifestyle brand UYU unlocked an esports scholarship program titled UYU G.O. The program will see UYU G.O. identify a non-sponsored player in the fighting game community and give them an opportunity to showcase their skills and gain experience at a major tournament. Each UYU G.O. recipient will receive support to attend one big event and a chance to represent UYU alongside UYU’s sponsored pro players at the chosen competition. The first recipient of the UYU G.O. scholarship will be Shina “Palushina” Williams from Ohio, who has elected to compete at DreamHack Atlanta on November 16-18.

Illuminate your work, gain high-level exposure and join your short form peers for a festival like no other. Finalists will be announced in November and winners’ videos will be screened at the festival this March in NYC. This is your chance to have your work celebrated by industry leaders! (Take a peek at our jurors).

Esports marketing agency Ader announced plans to blend a livestream of human and animated gamers playing together when Tyler “Ninja” Blevins; Logic; and the characters Rick and Morty combine to play Bethesda Game Studios’ Fallout 76. The livestream will take place on Nov. 8 on Twitch and Mixer at 9p. “We’re excited to provide Rick and Morty fans with the opportunity to interact with these iconic characters live as they join Ninja and Logic in the first multiplayer Fallout experience,” said Justin Warden, CEO of Ader. “Gaming audiences are interested in new and unique ways to connect with their favorite gamers, so we focus on creating experiences for our brand and publisher partners that are not only highly engaging but also push the boundaries creatively.” The stunt takes place tonight at 9p.

Blitz Esports was acquired by Discord in a move designed to bolster Discord’s play as game store and subscription service. As a result, content production at Blitz Esports will wrap up this week. “We met the folks at Discord, who shared our love for gaming and whose passion for improving gamers’ lives mirrored our own,” the company stated in a Medium post. “A few conversations later, it became evident that, with their ubiquitous chat platform and ambitious plans to level up how people play games, Discord had the vision and resources available for us to make an even bigger impact for the community.”

Data and analytics company Esports One was tapped by Riot Games in Brazil in a move to bring in real-time statistics and insights for its broadcasts in order to improve the viewer experience. The partnership will see the Riot team access the OneConsole, Esports One’s custom-build broadcaster console which provides a database and dashboard of live statistics.

Overwolf announced a $16M round of funding led by Intel Capital, with additional investments from Liberty Technology Venture Capital as well as existing investors. The open platform of game apps and in-game services currently serves over 10 million monthly active players.

FanAI SNAPSHOT

This week FanAI investigates the subtle differences between esports audiences. Over the weekend, BlizzCon 2018 took place at the Anaheim Convention Center, hosting fan activities and esports tournaments for Blizzards various games. Without looking deeper, it would be easy to assume that the audience demographics for Blizzard’s esports tournaments are roughly the same. Instead of assuming, FanAI took a data driven approach by examining the social followers of four top Blizzard esports titles. Of the top four the Overwatch League had a significantly higher Twitter follower percentage, over 50% higher, of female fans than the other three titles, Heroes of the Storm, Hearthstone, or StarCraft II. This shows that looking deeper into the audiences of individual game titles is very important for brands. As well, for brands that are looking to target the untapped female esports audience, the Overwatch League is a strong option that must be considered.

INDUSTRY

BlizzCon 2018 saw more than 40,000 gamers hit Anaheim over the weekend with a slate of esports championships and exhibition-style competitions in addition to its slate of news. Game highlights included the announcement of Diablo Immortal, Warcraft III: Reforged, World of Warcraft content update Tides of Vengeance, the unveiling of Overwatch’s newest hero Ashe and Orphea for heroes of the Storm, as well as Hearthstone expansion Rastakhan’s Rumble. Meanwhile, Blizzcon’s Overwatch World Cup led all tournaments in viewers, according to Esports Charts, generating over 20 million hours viewed globally, with average viewership per second of 1.16 million, peaking at 1.98 million.

Speaking of Blizzard, Hearthstone reached 100 million registered players. “There are more guests in the Tavern than ever before, but there’s always room for more!” the company said in a blog post. “We’re humbled and grateful that so many players have chosen to join us in the Hearthstone Tavern! As our way of saying thank you, we’re throwing a party! Join us by logging into Hearthstone from November 7 through November 11, play with friends, and be gifted with tokens of our appreciation!”

The Malaysian government announced plans to invest $2.4 million into the country’s esports scene in 2019 as part of the government’s annual budget for next year. The government will work with the Malaysia Digital Economy Corporation on the esports initiative, the details of which will be revealed at a later date.

ROSTER MOVES

eGency Global announced that Greg Skasko has joined the organization as Chief Operating Officer. Prior to joining eGency Global, Skasko spent 11 years at AT&T in Assistant Vice President and Director roles in entertainment marketing and gaming, sponsorships and AT&T Corporate Initiatives.

Trivia: Ash, Misty, Brock and Tracey were among the main characters in animated shows based on which game? (Emailchris-sports@cynopsis.comwith your answer and be sure to include your name, company and city.)

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